Political scientist and media critic

April 11, 2005

Group blogs suck

Josh Marshall's announcement that he's starting a group blog with a bunch of high-profile contributors made me realize something: I hate most group blogs. So I have to say I'm not hopeful that this one will be any good.

The problem is that most group blogs are either chaotic and choppy due to too many contributors posting on too many different subjects (ie Volokh) or the tendency of the writers to start having annoying, self-indulgent conversations with each other rather than generating interesting content (this is why I loathe The Corner). So I generally don't read them. The only ones I like have a common voice or topic to keep the voice relatively consistent and the content focused on shared themes (ie Tapped in the old days). And given the diverse perspectives of the contributors to the Marshall group blog, I'm not sure how disciplined they'll be.

Are there any good group blogs I'm missing? Or am I right that the best blogs are all one-person shops?

Comments

It could work if the contributors maintained blogs on the side in which to put things inappropriate for the main blog. It could also work if people have assigned specialties: the lawyer, the foreign policy wonk, the environmentalist. Just as long as no one starts a Queer Blog for the Left Guy.

As for good group blogs, I've always been fond of Crooked Timber because their large stable includes many people who don't post daily.